1. Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with a container for storing floppy diskettes or similarly shaped objects, and in particular is concerned with such a container provided with a means for quickly identifying and removing a selected floppy diskette from among the others in the container.
2. Prior Art
In recent years, the use of computers in large enterprises, small enterprises and homes has proliferated. Many of these computers use flexible magnetic disks for information storage. These flexible magnetic disks are available in several sizes and usually comprise a thin rotatable disk having a magnetically encodable surface, the disk being disposed usually in an essentially square cardboard pocket or a plastic holder. In common parlance, these flexible magnetic disks are often known as floppy disks or floppy diskettes.
Not only are data bases commonly stored on floppy diskettes, but applications programs which a computer owner may purchase or develop are also stored on the diskettes. Other information related to the use of a computer, such as pseudo-programs may also be so stored. A single user of a computer may, therefore, have an array of floppy diskettes which he or she uses at different times on his or her computer. For example, a single small business may have separate floppy diskettes dedicated to several different data bases such as customer lists, supplier lists, inventory, mailing lists, among others, as well as a variety of applications programs such as, word processing, spread sheet analysis, payroll generation, to name only a few. Even in a word processing context, there may be a separate floppy diskette, or several floppy diskettes, dedicated to the writings generated by each individual within the organization. Hence, the need arises for the ability to be able to quickly select and retrieve any desired floppy diskette from among all the floppy diskettes that may be at the computer user's disposal while at the same time providing for the safe storage of the flexible diskettes that are not in use.
One presently known method that is used to store floppy diskettes in an orderly manner comprises storing the floppy diskettes one behind another in a box-like container and using dividers to separate the floppy diskettes into identified categories, in a manner analogous to a card file system used in a library. In order to select and retrieve a desired floppy diskette, therefore, the proper category is first located and the floppy diskettes behind the appropriate divider are then individually flipped until the desired one has been selected and can be retrieved.
A number of shortcomings exist with respect to this method of selecting and retrieving floppy diskettes. First, as the floppy diskettes are being individually flipped in order to select the desired one within a category, they are being unnecessarily handled by human hands. This enhances both the risk of contamination and the possibility of mechanical damage. Such a risk which attends the human handling of floppy diskettes, while perhaps minimal, should be avoided wherever possible in order to decrease the possibility of the loss of information as well as to decrease the dependence upon backup diskettes. Other shortcomings arise from the possibility that two or more floppy diskettes may be inadvertently flipped rather than one at a time. Indeed, misfiling of the desired floppy diskette may result in the same floppy diskettes being flipped several times during the search for a selected one.